Welcome to RSM 260!
September 10, 2012
Professor Sanford DeVoe
Introduction
About me
New Yorker
PhD from Stanford GSB
Live in downtown Toronto
Currently Assistant Professor at Rotman
Since 2007 – teach in MBA, PhD, and BComm
Study the psychology of incentives, motivation, and culture
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Class Norms
Class will always start 10 minutes after the hour.
Arrive on time – if you’re late, please be discreet. 3
Agenda
What is Organizational Behaviour?
Organizational Behaviour Exercise
Syllabus
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What is Organizational Behaviour?
Scientific Management (Taylor)
The use of research to determine the optimal degree of specialization and standardization for a job.
“What can we do to get workers to do more in less time?”
engineering production process standardization of procedures
Classical View use of incentive pay
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What is Organizational Behaviour?
Elton Mayo & the Hawthorne studies
Hawthorne Plants of Western Electric
Company (Chicago, 1927)
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History of Organizational Behaviour
Elton Mayo & the
Hawthorne studies
Hawthorne Plants of
Western Electric
Company (Chicago, 1927)
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Hawthorne Studies
Illumination Experiments (1924-27)
Two work groups of female employees
Light intensity & worker efficiency
Relay Assembly Room Study (1927-29)
Five female employees
Effects of length of workday & week, & use of rest periods on productivity & fatigue
Initial conditions: 48 hours/ week (MondaySaturday, 9-5), no breaks
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Percentage of Standard Output
What is Organizational Behaviour?
124
116
108
100
Standard work conditions (48 hrs/week
[Mon-Sat, 9-5], no breaks)
added two breaks
made breaks longer
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added four breaks
back to two breaks, with hot meal ended all the day improvements at 4:30 taken away instead of 5:00
What is Organizational Behaviour?
Question: Why did performance increase even when all improvements were taken away?
Answer: Workers responded favourably to the special attention that they received.
The study demonstrates importance of psychological factors at work.
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What is Organizational Behaviour?
Human Relations Movement
The adoption of management styles that are participative and oriented toward the needs of employees. “What social and psychological factors influence the behaviour of workers?”
Based on studies on the effects of interventions on performance conducted at the Hawthorne Plants of the
Western Electric Company (Chicago, 1927)
Human Relations View
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What is Organizational Behaviour?
Organizational behaviour (OB) is the field of behavioural science that seeks knowledge of how individuals act, think, and feel in organizations by studying individual and group processes.
Emphasis is on studying attitudes and behaviours.
Asks how can organizations be structure most effectively. Includes the study of how events in the external environment affect organizations.
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Goals of OB
Predicting organizational behaviour and events. Explaining organizational behaviour and events in organizations.
Managing organizational behaviour.
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OB is…
Multidisciplinary
Techniques are Multi-Method
Anthropology
Economics
Observational
Political Science
Correlational
Psychology
Sociology
Experimental
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OB is…
Multidisciplinary
Techniques are Multi-Method
Anthropology
Economics
Political Science
Psychology
Sociology
Observational
Observe the natural setting by listening to what people say and watching what they do
Observe by participating as an organizational member
Ethnographic study is rich in description and detail (less emphasis on generalizing)
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OB is…
Multidisciplinary
Techniques are Multi-Method
Anthropology
Economics
Observational